Fwish!
Clang!
Pssch!
Amidst the dim and dark woodlands, a battle was taking place. Two large groups of opposing sides engaged in a remorseless confrontation that left the ambience of the surroundings in a state of anarchy.
On one side were a group of mercenaries and knights guarding a grandiose steel truck. Their forces comprised of protectors recruited to safely escort a well known big shot from a business trip back to the Dukedom Of Perfetto, an independent sovereign state not tied to any nation. Their fame is not anything notable but their economic advancements aren't something to scoff at either if it were to be compared to other medium sized sovereignties.
While on the other side are brigands standing with the crystal clear goal of looting the band of protectors and snatching the dignitary.
"Men, you all know we're going to die right?" A critically wounded knight spoke in a subtle tone, his weariness was starting to show from his faltering hips. "I'm sorry for failing to safely return everyone to their homes."
They were severely outnumbered. 9 mercenaries and private knights were left from this skirmish when originally they had more than 40 footsoldiers, together they formed a circle with a truck at the center.
The brigands enclosed them in a big circle of madness. More than a hundred ruffians were surrounding the escorts from all directions.
"Gah, why don't you just surrender?" A buffed brigand with a big chin pointed his rusty great sword at the Escort Operation's Leader. "If you give up now, we can take you hostage and sell you as slaves instead."
Having been humiliated like that, the caravan leader smacked the sword away with his hands and stood clear for any conspicuous movements. But that earlier assertion the brigand made just now gave rise to a confusion within his ranks.
"R-Really? Is that true?" A knight missing a right hand spoke, he was beginning to feel hopeful that they'd be spared.
"Wh-What are you—" The caravan leader tried to reprimand his colleague, but before he could finish his sentence, his head glissaded from his neck and fell motionlessly to the springy turf of the forest ground.
"Sure sure, we won't kill you. If you put down your weapons and let us take the people inside that vehicle that is." He proposed, a red glint was evident in his blade that he used to decapitate their higher-up while his eyes showed no signs of care and lacked any spec of mercy. However, the knights and mercenaries were too overwhelmed to notice this.
"Ofcourse, we will not harm the people inside. We will only extract some money from them and they'd be going scot free. Isn't that well civilized?" He added after seeing how skeptical they looked from making this decision, surrendering would mean they'd be failing their one job and become enslaved. Another possibility is those ruffians won't keep their words.
"So how about it?" He repeated again, and to his delight, all of the enemy personnel who were still alive dropped their weapons to the ground.
"That's what I like to see." He said with a joyous expression that normally a grandmother would make to their favored grandchild. "Now, OPEN FIRE."
The escorts had grim expressions on their faces after hearing his following words. Before they could even formulate a response and re-equip their weapons from the ground, a volley of arrows had already sunken into random parts of their bodies. The numerous cries and weeping of the soldiers brought inhumane contentment to the criminal gang.
"Y-You said, you'd only enslave us! Wh-Why did you go back on your word, you fiend?!"
"Oh please, did you actually think I'd spare you? Defiant losers like you who only have one arm can't even sell as a slave. Well, keke... Perhaps the girls can atleast serve their purpose for us later." He replied to the knight on the verge of death while disgustingly licking his lips with his greasy tongue.
"Kyaaa! Help!"
"S-Stop! Please don't do this!"
"Kahahahaha!"
That night, constant screaming and a dreadful atmosphere surrounded the forest as unspeakable acts occured in it's domain.
After a series of events, an hour later did the thieves finally decide to open the contents of the truck. With some difficulty, they managed to pull it off. But once they opened the iron door which sealed the entrance, one of the thieves was strongly struck by a solid projectile on the nose, causing him to fall backwards while holding his nose in agony.
Only two people were inside, a man in his late ages and a teenage girl with long black flowing hair.
"Cap! We opened the container!" One of the criminals shouted and a handful of brigands appeared from behind to look at what's inside. "Alright boys! Tie them up! Make sure not to sully the merchandise or the big guys will slice your asses off!"
The girl inside was a magic caster, she stood there quietly but she released a streak of water the moment one of them climbed up, making them fly off into a distance with a bang.
Upon noticing that irregularity, some more brigands came and some were fellow mages that were on standby.
Due to that, the next magic spell she casted wasn't so lucky this time. Three mages were there to cancel her magic formulations whenever she attemped.
"She's powerless now, get them!" In her moment of powerlessness, the young noble lady was outnumbered and captured along with her companion.
Both figures were chained and transported to the main camp of the brigands in the far reaches of the mountain ranges where people rarely wander off to, including the business funds they obtained from the trip. Just like they said earlier, they were not harmed.
"Father, do you think they'll let us go?"
"Be a bit more quiet, Laurel. Yes they definitely will if we just give them what they want. Your grandfather will definitely send enough money to get us out of here. Just bare with it for now."
The brigand camp was congested by many black tents, stone campfires and crates containing weaponry just like any tightly packed base of operations that mercenary groups set up during war times.
The two nobles expressed signs of anxiousness. This place was dangerous, without a doubt and they had to get out of here before anything worse happens.
10 minutes after entering the camp, they finally met with the group's leader. She was a tall woman with well built muscles, orange hair, blue eyes and an eye catching bust hidden behind a strap. Just from a glance at her scarred and sutured skin, you could see she's been into many disputes in the past.
"Boss, we've brought them. That information we obtained from that person was true, what do we do to them now?"
"I see, so I really can trust that organization's informant. What of the casualties?" The woman who was addressed as the boss, looked up and down at Laurel, inspecting each and every corner of her body.
"We've lost about 66 or 67 units. But we obtained more than 5,000,000 Gryles in exchange. We're rich, boss!" The lackey reported with his head held high. The two nobles couldn't help but be aggravated in silence while hearing this.
"Really?"
"Yeah, our men are drinking rum outside as we speak. Are you going to join them, boss?"
"Mhmm..." The woman looked at Laurel, her eyes sparkling which gave Laurel the feeling that she's in trouble. "Maybe later, I'll catch up. Take this old guy with you and don't let anyone get in."
Having catched on of what she was thinking of doing, the subordinate compelled Laurel's father to stand up and follow him outside.
"H-Hey, where are you taking me? What are you going to do to my daughter? Hey, don't ignore me!"
"Shut up, old man or I'll slap that damn face off of that head!"
Laurel watched as her father was taken away, their voices began to dwindle down as they got further away from the brigand leader's tent.
"You have a pretty cute face, it's better than I had expected." The woman began to speak, her gaze to Laurel looking lascivious. "You know, I've tasted many noble girls your age but I've never done it with a girl who's a princess."
Laurel merely listened and maintained a composed appearance, but that was eventually broken when the brigands' leader began taking off her clothes. She was so surprised that she couldn't speak, in hopes that what was going to happen isn't what she's thinking, she stood quiet while watching.
"You're not reacting? That's not fun at all. Raping someone who wouldn't resist isn't fun." By now, only her undergarments remained. Afterwards, she held Laurel by the chin. "Now then, let's see how you taste."
She tried to kiss Laurel on the lips but before their lips made contact, Laurel turned her head to face her right side, making her cheek get kissed instead.
"A pretty defiant one, aren't you? Well I guess I can enjoy other parts of your body first until you fully submit." Giving up on the idea of kissing, she began by gently licking Laurel's neck instead. Kissing and sucking as she slid up to Laurel's cheek.
Laurel can't help but take in the scent of her captor, she had an alluring smell that for some reason was turning her on. Her cheeks were becoming beet red as her assaulter eventually took interest in her breasts.
"W-Wait, not there!"
"Kuku, you're finally showing some resistance. I like that."
"...Mmghnn."
Laurel was on the verge of giving up and succumbing to the sexually arousing activity. Afterall, her captive doesn't look bad in any way, anyway. Or that's probably how she's thinking now that she's in a trance.
"Haah... Nghh..."
10 minutes had passed by in an instant.
"Heh, you're starting to enjoy it now. Aren't you?" Seeing this as an opportunity, the brigand leader used her right hand's index finger to open Laurel's mouth and it opened fairly easily. Her pink glossy lips was pulling her assaulter in.
"J-Just go at it, already!"
"Fufufu. Alright then, Bon Appetit!"
Fwish!
"B-Boss!"
Like thunder in a clear sunny sky, the brigand's subordinate returned with noticeable cuts on different types of his body. Some of his clothes were even torn.
"B-Boss... We're under attack by something!"
"Something?" She repeated whilst changing her clothes. Her fun has been disrupted right when it was getting to the exciting part. In her head, she was swearing of torturing whatever it was that had done this.
Just like that, Laurel was left inside the brigand leader's tent. Meanwhile, the latter was staring at her devasted camp. Someone had set fire to many of their facilities and home tents while dozens of her subordinates lay lifeless on the ground. Lacerations and stabs seemed like the causes of their deaths.
"Noone saw what did it, it was too quick. What kind of monster could it be? Hey boss we should escape before—"
While speaking, something extremely agile and imperceptible to the eye had passed by. Her right hand-man didn't finish his sentence for some reason.
But then, dark red blood showered the brigand boss as the neck of her subordinate was cleanly gouged out by something too quick for her to see.
She was taken off guard, but didn't falter from what occured and immediately conjured two dark orbs made with dark magic. Since her enemy was something not visible to the eye, she assumes it was the work of an invisible foe.
Once something gets close to her, she'd be informed and the dark orbs would discharge and temporarily deactivate any kinds of magic enchantments that could have possibly done the invisibility effect.
The place suddenly became eerily quiet for a handful of seconds, strangely so. She was surrounded by nothing but dead bodies and the sounds of wood steadily being broken down by fire.
She didn't detect any kind of mana fluctuating in the air. So she assumed it was gone.
However, contrary to her guess, something blue and in liquid form struck her from behind and phased through her skin. She didn't even realize, but she instantly fell asleep without resistance.
A flying squirrel unsuspectingly landed on her head and without delay, immediately examined their clothes for any signs of information it could find. It managed to fork out many useless and not worth noting items but she did found some interesting things.
One was a letter and the other was her National ID Card which was a rare thing to see from a mountain bandit.
Keys that it expected was for opening the cages that locked up the hostages was found on the adjutant's belongings.
Once it had collected all the necessary data, the squirrel ignored the lying bodies on the ground and began freeing the female prisoners that the criminal group had captured.
The prisoners were all locked up in big cages placed in different parts of the camp by gender. So it was easy to spot.
"Isn't that a recon sedar? How cute."
"Shoo! Get out of here! Those bad guys will find and eat you!"
Creak
The girls locked up here were captured young merchants, militants or simple travellers. Unlucky individuals abducted by the brigands to either sell as slaves or use for their entertainment.
"Oh."
"Did it just open the cage with the keys..?" One of them was confused, but One pushed the cage's door open and made gestures with it's tiny hands to get out.
"Is it telling us to get out?"
"Outside sounds quiet, so something must've happened."
"Did people come and save us?"
Reluctantly, they began to exit the cage one by one and started surveiling the place, it really was clear of any hostilities. Countless bodies of their captors were now lying corpses on the ground.
When everyone got out, One climbed the girls' legs one by one and began chewing the ropes that tied their hands together to better make use of them.
"Ah, it freed me."
"Hey me too!"
"Me too please!"
"Untie me too please! I have to find my father."
Laurel was there too, after she was left in the tent alone, she went to check the situation outside by herself and fortunately found this place.
"Th-Thanks." She was grateful and thanked the animal by impulse, Laurel was unsure whether it could understand her but seeing how intelligent it was, she just did. And to answer her question, it gave her the thumbs up which she was never ready for.
"Wow, it's so smart. It's master must be an excellent monster tamer."
"Huh? Where is it going?"
One ran off somewhere. Having a sense of reliance on One by now, the girls also followed it but it came back right away with some things on her tiny hand.
"What's this? Someone's national ID card?" They immediately started studying the items she brought.
"Th-This bitch! She's the one that raped me!"
"Isn't she this place's boss?"
"And this one is just a regular letter." The others started reading the letter One found in the brigand boss' pockets.
"Let me see that." Laurel joined in and read the letter's contents too, her eyebrows narrowed the more she progressed. "Tch, so it was the Murim Federation that gave away our route afterall."
She sighed. One went off on her own again and this time freed the male prisoners, although with a lack of enthusiasm.
Before long, people were following One. It was a strange sight if anyone were to watch such a bizarre situation.
She led them to the unconscious body of the sound asleep brigand boss and began tying her hands with ropes before she woke up.
"Did... Did you do all this?" Laurel asked as she took in the devasted camp of the bandits. The squirrel honestly nodded it's head to confirm and waved it's hand while running back to the forest to convey she was leaving.
"W-Wait!" However, it stopped and turned it's head to listen when Laurel called out to her. "Do you know where the direction leading to the roadside is?"
One came running back which startled Laurel before it went for a spree searching for sticks on the ground. Once it gathered enough to form an arrow pointing to the 7 o' clock of where Laurel was facing did One leave for good.
"Thank you!"
After the squirrel's departure, Laurel took in the view of her savior disappearing to the dark stretches of the forest under the moon-lit sky.